Ghosts of Mateguas – New Paranormal Fiction by Linda Watkins

The body of a young girl, found floating in the icy waters of Scarborough Marsh…
Six men, over a span of thirty-five years, disappear without a trace…
A harbinger of evil, so ancient it defies memory, surfaces on the rocky shores of Mateguas…Journey, with Karen and her family, back to the mythos, passion, and magic, and join her as she seeks to finally lay to rest the … GHOSTS OF MATEGUAS.

GHOSTS OF MATEGUAS is the third full-length novel in highly acclaimed, award-winning, MATEGUAS ISLAND SERIES by Linda Watkins. The novel will be published in eBook format on March 15, 2016. The print version will follow, most likely in April. GHOSTS is on pre-order at Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks

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Excerpt from READERS FAVORITE 5-Star editorial review:

“Those who love stories with some touch of mystery will not be disappointed with this one. The story, for sure, will grip readers at different levels. First off, Watkins writes with moving simplicity, a kind of prose that tantalizes and is difficult to put down, because it rings with an eloquence that is akin to the spell of the ghosts sauntering along the rocky shores of Mateguas. It can be difficult to believe a story told about humans and ghosts, but when that story is told by Watkins, it becomes as convincing as it is real.

The setting is perfect for a tale that involves the herald of evil: the rocky shores, the eternity of the sea, the marshes… The story is fast paced; the suspense is so skillfully built into the story to have the reader turning the pages, and the characters are solid enough that any reader will care about what happens to them. One would say that Ghosts of Mateguas comes with a spell that makes the book impossible to put down. Beautifully written by a writer of a rare caliber.” ~ Romuald Dzemo for READERS FAVORITE

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Excerpt from GHOSTS OF MATEGUAS:

THE AMTRAK DOWNEASTER PULLED noisily into the Portland terminal. Bill grabbed his overnighter and briefcase and followed the stream of passengers hurriedly exiting the train. The sun was bright and he had to squint due to its reflection off his glasses. He had a bitch of a headache.

Grimacing, he walked rapidly toward the parking lot.

“BILL! OVER HERE!”

He stopped and turned, surprised to hear someone calling his name.

Susan stood in front of the entrance to the train terminal, waving as she yelled to him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he approached her. “You know I have my car. I don’t need a ride.”

Susan frowned. “Nice greeting. I think you can do better than that, can’t you?”

Despite his headache, Bill managed a laugh. “Okay,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist and giving her a lingering kiss. “That better?”

“Yes, it is,” she laughed. “Much. Now let’s get a cup of coffee. I don’t have a lot of time and I want to let you know what’s been happening.”

Reluctantly, Bill followed her into the terminal. He didn’t want to be with her now. All he wanted was to get home, take a pill, and lie down. But Susan was a force and he knew it would be better to accede to her demands than to fight.

Once inside, he purchased coffee from one of the many vending machines that lined the back wall. The place was now almost deserted and they sat down on one of the benches to talk.

“They bit!” she exclaimed. “They’re going to look for the bodies on Puffin. And, I’ve enlisted the support of the Anthro Department at State for grad students to help.”

“You mean the police will be going to Puffin? That’s good news, I guess. Why the students, though?”

“Yes, the police and forensics. And, the kids from State – they’ve been on archeological digs and know how to sift through debris and dirt for artifacts. A rep from the Coroner’s Office will be coming along, too.”

Bill sipped his coffee, thinking. “Do you really expect they’re going to find anything? I mean, it’s a long shot.”

Susan smiled. “I’ve got a hunch on this one and my hunches are usually right. Yes, I think they’re going to find one, if not all, of the six missing men.” She glanced down at her watch. “I’ve got to get going. I’m on the air in an hour, but I just had to tell you the good news.”

She reached over and squeezed his hand, then stood and started for the door. Halfway across the room, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “Oh, Christ, I almost forgot. Saturday. Keep Saturday clear.”

She blew him a kiss, turned, and hurried out the door to the parking lot.

Bill sat immobile for a moment staring after her as three words screamed across his consciousness, “Saturday … Puffin Island.”

Without warning, black shadows crept into the corners of his vision and the quiet terminal was abruptly filled with the vicious sound of the winter wind raging relentlessly across the ocean.

The words “Puffin Island” echoed repeatedly, bouncing off the walls and slamming into his mind over and over again. But nothing could blot out the never-ending, icy howling of the wind that threatened swallow his soul alive.

His hands were shaking violently with imagined cold, causing the hot coffee to spill over the front of his pants. The steaming liquid burned, but he was not aware of it. The shadows clouding his vision were growing larger and he feared they would soon erase all that he was or once had been, leaving his mind and his soul lifeless, devoid of all humanity.

And only one word triumphed over the roar of the bitter and relentless wind: survive.

Linda Watkins currently resides in Western Michigan and, in another life, was a Senior Clinical Financial Analyst at Stanford University School of Medicine. She was born on the east coast, but grew up in a suburb of Detroit. Upon graduation from college (Carnegie Mellon, ’70), she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she lived and worked for thirty years. Taking early retirement, she moved briefly to Oregon then to an unconnected island off the coast of Maine (Chebeague Island, ME). She lived on Chebeague for seven years and it was there that she wrote her award-winning debut novel, MATEGUAS ISLAND.

Today, Linda lives with her three aging rescue dogs (Splatter, Spudley and Jasper) and is at work on the third novel in the series, GHOSTS OF MATEGUAS (to be published in early 2016). Serious about dog welfare and rescue, all net proceeds from sales of THE MATEGUAS ISLAND SERIES are donated to Linda’s charitable trust, the Raison d’Etre Fund for Dogs, Dedicated to Rescue and Research.